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Churches put denominations aside to help neighbors

Patricia Borns, pborns@newsleader.com 12:40 a.m. EDT August 4, 2014

Amber Shea, 16, a resident of Montague Terrace Apartments, leaps between jump ropes spun by Kathy Doyle during an event to celebrate the start of new community services by a group of area churches called The Connection on Saturday.(Photo: Griffin Moores/The News Leader)

Amber Shea, 16, a resident of Montague Terrace Apartments, leaps between jump ropes spun by Kathy Doyle during an event to celebrate the start of new community services being offered at the housing development by a group of area churches called The Connection on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 in Stuarts Draft. (Photo: Griffin Moores/The News Leader)

Keon Thomas, 13, reacts to a missed shot in a game of cornhole he was playing with Kevin Goertzen, a pastor at Springdale Mennonite Church, and others during an event to celebrate the start of new community services being offered at the Montague Terrace Apartments by a group of area churches called The Connection on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 in Stuarts Draft. (Photo: Griffin Moores/The News Leader)

Harley Myers, 14, cheers alongside Wanda Almond after getting a point in a game of corn hole during an event to celebrate the start of new community services being offered at his housing development, the Montague Terrace Apartments, by a group of area churches called The Connection on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 in Stuarts Draft. (Photo: Griffin Moores/The News Leader)

Andrea Tinsley and her son Trayson Blair, 2, draw with sidewalk chalk during an event to celebrate the start of new community services being offered at their housing development, the Montague Terrace Apartments, by a group of area churches called The Connection on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 in Stuarts Draft. (Photo: Griffin Moores/The News Leader)

Naomi Blair, 8, has her face painted during an event to celebrate the start of new community services being offered at her housing development, the Montague Terrace Apartments, by a group of area churches called The Connection on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 in Stuarts Draft. (Photo: Griffin Moores/The News Leader)

People play cornhole during an event to celebrate the start of new community services being offered at the Montague Terrace Apartments by a group of area churches called The Connection on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 in Stuarts Draft. (Photo: Griffin Moores/The News Leader)

Musicians perform during an event to celebrate the start of new community services being offered at the Montague Terrace Apartments by a group of area churches called The Connection on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 in Stuarts Draft. (Photo: Griffin Moores/The News Leader)

Chris Fritz, left, hands grilled burgers to Bill Clifton during an event to celebrate the start of new community services offered to residents of the Montague Terrace Apartments by a group of area churches they belong to called The Connection on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 in Stuarts Draft. (Photo: Griffin Moores/The News Leader)

Mattie Depriest, 9, slides into a pool of cold water during an event to celebrate the start of new community services offered to residents of the Montague Terrace Apartments by a group of area churches she belongs to called The Connection on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 in Stuarts Draft. (Photo: Griffin Moores/The News Leader)

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STUARTS DRAFT – The grounds of an affordable housing development were transformed Saturday evening as children trampolined in colorful jump houses, had their faces painted and toured a real emergency rescue truck.

While the kids and their parents enjoyed the food and fun, the event at Montague Terrace had a special mission for its sponsors, a group of churches calling themselves The Connection.

"Our goal isn't to bus the residents to our churches," Pastor Bruce Hankee of Greenmonte Fellowship said, explaining why his church group is proposing to "adopt" the Stuarts Draft apartment complex. "We started with a big event to build relationships. To say, 'We would like to be involved in your lives.' "

Holding out a hand to strangers is an idea as old as Christianity, but as church members age and congregations shrink, pastors are looking for new ways to bring members into the fold.

What's new for the churches of The Connection is to come together around one ministry, putting their denominational differences aside.

The idea began with Greenmonte Fellowship member Wade Gayle. Gayle had worked with children in the slums of Danville and wanted to help kids in Stuarts Draft.

"I thought there might be others who shared that impetus," said Hankee, who reached out to pastors at White Hill Church of the Brethren, Springdale Mennonite, Calvary United Methodist and Rejoicing Life to see what they could do.

"Pastor Bruce is the glue," said Rejoicing Life Pastor Mike Lawson, whose non-denominational church occupies a storefront in Stuarts Draft. "He brought us together."

As more churches became involved, their mission expanded from children to families. Eventually they found the Humanities Foundation, the low-income housing developer behind Montague Terrace.

The nonprofit Humanities Development builds affordable rentals made possible by the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits program. According to its marketing literature, it doesn't just put up buildings; it also provides support services for its residents — for example, health services or meals on wheels — through community groups such as The Connection.

"I think having them here is a good idea," said Montague resident Andrea Tinsley, who was drawn out of her apartment by the sound of the band playing. Tinsley, who hadn't heard about The Connection, brought her two children and partner Tracy Lee Blair Jr. to see what was going on. She and Blair both belong to churches, neither of them part of The Connection.

"The kids have to play in the parking lot because the complex doesn't have a playground," the young mother said. Tinsley liked the idea of a community group giving her children something to do while the couple is working, she at the local Dairy Queen, he at the Target distribution center in Stuarts Draft.

Instead of going in with preconceived ideas about what the Montague Terrace residents need, The Connection members hope to weave themselves into the fabric of their lives and take their cues from them.

"We still don't know how it will play out," said Kevin Goertzen, pastor of Springdale Mennonite Church in Waynesboro, who was hesitant at first about whether several churches of different denominations could work together.

For example, if the group starts a Bible study class at Montague, what kind of congregation would it be?

"The last thing we want is a church fight in front of the people we're trying to witness to," said Goertzen, who's excited about their mission.

To overcome such concerns, the group came up with a set of shared values, like listening and respect, that thread through their different faiths.

Along with the water slide, hand-churned ice cream and games, a few church members sat under a prayer tent pitched at the back of the parking lot. "It's not our goal to plant a church," Goertzen said. "Our hope is that someone would choose to follow Christ, but it's not an expectation."

Around the end of August, Hankee expects the group will invite 20 to 25 residents at a time to share a family meal in the Montague Terrace community room. The churches will take turns providing the meals to "hear people's hearts and find ways to respond."

For now, the church members seemed content to chat with the residents who lined up for burgers and hot dogs and took their little ones to try the water slide.

Pastor Lawson, who'd found a pickup game with some resident teens, grinned as he scrambled for the rebound under the apartment complex's lone basketball hoop. "This is what we came here for," he said.